As top player sits, Bulls win first C-USA game, 68-60 over Southern Miss.
By PETE YOUNG
Published February 14, 2004
TAMPA - All South Florida needed to finally win a game in 2004, to finally win a Conference USA game under first-year coach Robert McCullum, was another giant scoop of adversity.
The Bulls played Southern Miss on Friday at the Sun Dome without leading scorer and rebounder Terrence Leather. Then they reversed the script from their first nine C-USA games, leading almost from tip to buzzer to win 68-60.
"For me there's no greater feeling than winning against the odds," said McCullum, who held out Leather for academic reasons. "Our players needed this. They're so deserving."
Reduced to five scholarship players plus three walk-ons, USF (7-14, 1-9) turned the tables against USM (11-10, 4-6) before an announced 2,891.
"Nine games, that's a really long time," said guard Bradley Mosley, who had a career-high 30 points. "But we knew we were getting closer and closer. We figured we'd get one as long as we kept working hard."
The Bulls got sterling efforts from three iron men who played 40 minutes in USF's fourth game in seven days. Mosley became the first Bull to score 30 in nearly two years; Gerrick Morris blocked nine shots, two off his school record; and Brian Swift shot better than 50 percent on 3-pointers (3-for-5) for a fifth straight game.
Mosley and Swift combined to outscore the Southern Miss starting backcourt 43-3.
"With Terrence Leather being out, Brian Swift said me and him would have to have a good game," said Mosley, who made 10 of 22 shots. "I knew I would have to be more aggressive."
Swift has made 24 of 43 3-pointers (55.8 percent) in the past five games.
"We feel like we can compete with any two guards in the conference," Swift said.
Morris, a 6-foot-10 senior, moved into second on C-USA's block chart with 234, trailing Cincinnati's Kenyon Martin (292). He needs 11 in the final six games to surpass Curtis Kitchen's USF season record of 89 and 24 to break Kitchen's career mark.
In the first 8:18 of the second half, Morris blocked eight shots. He finished with nine for the second time in three games.
"Right before the Houston game (Jan.31), Gerrick showed up with his hair cut lower, or different, than usual," McCullum said. "I don't know if it's the haircut, but the last five or six games there's been a difference about him. He's had a spark about him."
"I just saw him smiling," Swift said of the reserved Morris. "The last few games he's been crazy down in there (on defense)."
Since the start of the year the Bulls have slumped as three players quit and two were lost to injury.
Despite Leather's absence, the Bulls controlled all but the final few minutes of the first half. With Mosley attacking the basket, USF staked leads of 23-12 and 29-18. Southern Miss, led by Charles Gaines' 20 points and 12 rebounds, sliced it to 30-28 at halftime.
"I told Bradley, "Ain't no way we're losing this game,"' Swift said.
USF repeatedly has had slow starts to both halves. Friday, Morris took charge after intermission with his block-a-minute outburst. The Bulls stretched the lead to 16 twice.
The Bulls resuscitated their conference tournament hopes. (The bottom two teams don't qualify.) USF and East Carolina have one C-USA win, Tulane and Houston have two.
"It's definitely fun again," Swift said. "We can't go anywhere but up."
